Page 10 of Seven Days with her Duke (Hearts of Whitmores #3)

CHAPTER 10

T he following morning, as Dominic returned to his correspondence and weighted ledgers, he realized he had not informed Eleanor of her brother’s extended absence.

Two days more, Nicholas had written.

Already Dominic had sent off a short response to reassure him and his lady wife that Eleanor would be watched over so well their absence would never be noticed. He would keep Eleanor very busy. They’d both be splendidly distracted that they were in the city they had never cared for doing activities everyone else requested of them.

Except for today… Where is my calendar? I cannot find anything of note for this evening and I cannot go unprepared again.

Approximately fifteen minutes later and after a confirmation from his secretary, his butler, and his cook, Dominic discovered there indeed wasn’t anything on the schedule. The day was his. He could do anything.

“Anything,” he mused to himself as he glanced at the growing score of papers. Then he called, “Rollings?”

His secretary looked up from where he paced in the corner of the room, sorting through an offer they had received. The man loved legalese, so Dominic had him review such matters before taking such documents to his man of business. “Yes, Your Grace?”

“Sort these papers for me, would you? Whatever is critical, necessary, and so on? For any affairs I have missed, send my regrets. And so on. Yes?”

“Very well, Your Grace.”

“Good man, Rollings. Thank you. Remind me to give you a raise one of these days,” Dominic noted on his way out the door.

It wasn’t long before he was changed and riding his horse through town, across the park to visit the Whitmore Manor. The house was grand for all that it was fairly empty. He stood before the columns and climbing vines with a slight smile on his face while he considered the treasure inside.

Wordlesby opened the door before he could knock his knuckles against it. No one was receiving today, but still he was welcomed.

“Good day, Your Grace,” the butler said. “A pleasure to see you. I’m afraid the duke is not yet returned, nor his duchess.”

Still he let Dominic inside and took his hat. “What a shame,” Dominic said though he could manage not a whit of disappointment. “I suppose I shall have to satisfy myself with Lady Eleanor’s company this afternoon. Where might I find her?”

The butler studied him for a long moment, his brow furrowed at Dominic. There was no telling what he was thinking.

Unless, of course, he is considering that an unmarried gentleman is calling on a young woman without a chaperone at home. Maids can only do so much. But the same would go for me. No matter my rakish behavior and past, I would never dream of causing Eleanor any harm.

Fortunately, Wordlesby seemed to agree. “Lady Eleanor should enjoy your company, I believe, though she is busy. She practices her music at this time of morning. I should like to trust she will be allowed to enjoy herself? Safely?”

“I won’t touch a hair on her head,” Dominic promised though he said nothing of her hands or cheek. “Send along her maid should you have any concerns.”

After a moment of contemplating, the butler nodded. “The family trusts you, Your Grace. I expect only the best behavior from you, especially in the company of our dear lady.”

A gentle threat from the household. That made Dominic grin. He offered a partial bow. “Indeed, my good man. I shall endeavor to do you proud. Now, the music room…?”

“That way,” was all Wordlesby provided.

Dominic headed down the hall and wandered for a short time until he could hear something. He nodded to a maid walking by who gaped at him and nearly ran into a chair. Holding back a grin, he turned to the cracked open doorway where he could hear the strings of the harp being plucked.

This was no time to interrupt her. He didn’t recognize the song, but he would know Eleanor anywhere. Her left side was to him as she was angled towards the sunlight of an open window. Now, she hugged the harp neatly though it was a beastly thing. And those pretty fingers of hers, so slim and swift, glided over the strings like ripples of water in a river.

Dominic couldn’t look away, couldn’t do anything but lean against the door and listen in wonder. How was it she continued to surprise him?

A gasp sounded and he jerked his head back up.

Across from him sat a wall beside the window, and on the wall was a broad mirror. He could just see Eleanor’s face looking back at him there in surprise, eyes wide and lips parted.

He smirked. “Hello to you, too.”

Standing so quickly her chair nearly tipped, Eleanor righted it and then fixed her harp. She shot him a stern look. “Whatever are you doing here? This is my day to rest.”

“Then allow me to rest with you,” Dominic said before he could help himself. While Eleanor jerked back with a reddened face, he hastily cleared his throat to say, “That is, we can enjoy a resting day together. Here or wherever you like is all. I should be happy to hear you play the day away.”

“On the harp?”

He nodded, hesitantly meeting her gaze. “Should you like to, yes.”

“Not the piano?”

“Can you play everything?”

A short chuckle escaped her while she tended to the instrument that was as tall as her. Probably twice her weight, he mused. She wheeled it off to the side and covered it neatly before making her way over to him.

He crossed his arms. “I didn’t mean to make you stop, Eleanor. Did you wish to keep playing your harp?”

“Not now. I was nearly finished,” she explained while fumbling with her gloves. “I couldn’t possibly play with you watching me.”

“I wouldn’t tease you.”

The look she gave him said she believed otherwise. “We shall have to amuse ourselves in another way. Are you hungry? I talked to Cook about enjoying a luncheon since I slept through breakfast.”

He tsked playfully. “What a lazy head you are.”

“Don’t jest so if you wish to be fed,” Eleanor said primly as she neatly brushed her way around him to enter the hall.

Eagerly following at her heels, he nodded. He was happy enough just to follow the young woman about for his own amusement. She wore a lovely blue frock that swished around her feet. Trailing behind her, he smelled her lavender perfume. “Whatever you say, my darling.”

Having acted as the lady of the house for over half her life, Eleanor managed her house well. He lingered a step back when she spoke to the household, wondering how it went for her now that Nicholas had himself a wife who would normally manage the staff. So much of their lives had shifted since their youth, he pondered, though he was certain now that Eleanor had changed much more than he had. She’d grown into a fine young woman.

“Dominic.”

He blinked. So lost in his thoughts, he’d said little on their way into the gardens. Setting down their basket on the blanket she’d set down on a bench, he managed a smile.

“It seems my thoughts have stolen me away. My apologies.”

Shaking her head, Eleanor opened the basket and brought out something for them to drink. Lemonade, he presumed. And as he accepted a cup from her, she prepared a plate for him.

“You’re not the sort to get carried away with thinking. Sometimes I am convinced you don’t think at all. You simply act. You smile and you laugh and you dance and you jest all so naturally that it is part of you more than actual thinking,” Eleanor mused.

He drank the lemonade and accepted a crowded plate of small sandwich bites and biscuits. Strawberries, too. An absolute delight. His mouth watered even as he brought his gaze back up to her.

“What need have I to think?” Dominic straightened up, wondering what was wrong with himself. He shook off the feeling to be the person she needed. He grinned at her. “I’m a duke; I can do anything I’d like. It’s what I like most about my title.”

“Do you enjoy being a duke, then?”

“Being a duke means I can spend the day in a delightful lady’s company and fresh berries. Of course I enjoy being a duke. Everyone should have the chance to try such a privilege.”

Though he had thought it might make her laugh, or at least smile, Eleanor instead pressed her lips tightly together in distaste. “You don’t mean that.”

“Oh? Perhaps I shall have you do the thinking for me.”

“Stop such jesting,” she said, pushing away his hand when he attempted to feed her a berry. “Don’t, Dominic. I don’t like it when you do that. You’re trying to tease me and avoid being truthful with yourself. I won’t have it.”

Tsking, he popped the berry into his mouth. “My apologies, madam. Shall I tell you pretty lies instead?”

“No.” She straightened her shoulders. “I want a serious conversation.”

His lips curved downward to mimic her own, wondering why she insisted on being so sober. It hardly seemed enjoyable. “But serious conversations are terribly dull.”

“Not when they are necessary.”

“Isn’t today meant to be a rest day? Being serious is rather taxing.”

“Dominic Elkins, I mean it. Otherwise I would rather you leave.” Eleanor didn’t blink, showing him that she meant it.

How unnerving she could be. But why was he so unsettled? Feeling the skip of his heartbeat, Dominic swallowed his berry and attempted to find something cheery to say that would put their conversation to rights. They’d had such a lovely day yesterday at the horse race. He had hoped to continue the merriment, to see her cheery and delighted over something. Instead, he was making her unhappy.

“All right.” Dominic hoped his breath didn’t sound shaky. “What shall we talk of? Taxes? The weather, perhaps? Oh, I know, the way you practiced your French and Latin while skipping through the meadow in search of us? We were always in the trees, you know, when we were hiding.”

A wry smile crossed Eleanor’s lips. “Yes. I know that now. I used to think you two disappeared into thin air. It wasn’t until I was twelve that Nicholas told me the truth of it. How infuriating the obvious truth was then.”

“I’m sorry,” he found himself saying to their surprise.

Blinking, she gave a quick shake of her head. Her hands shifted their grasp on her plate. Another biscuit was put on her plate though she’d hardly touched anything yet. “Thank you, but that’s not the apology I’m looking for.”

His throat dried. “I didn’t know you were in search of one.”

How serious of a conversation does she desire?

Unease wormed its way into his spine, but Dominic couldn’t bring himself to move. He grasped his plate tightly while he studied Eleanor. She couldn’t seem to look at him. Those pretty eyes of hers were small galaxies searching for something he feared he already knew.

And then Eleanor said, “we missed you at the funeral.”

Dominic glanced away, unable to see the naked truth of how much his absence had hurt in her eyes. “I couldn’t make it.”

That didn’t stop her. Of course it wouldn’t. Nothing could stop Eleanor. He wished he could stop admiring her as she told him, “Nicholas needed you.”

“He had you.”

He sensed more than he saw her shaking her head. The words were soft and intimate, rolling off her lips. But every one of them stung him like needles under his nails. “It’s different. We were both lost. Besides, he was there for you when your brother passed. I would have been if women were permitted to funerals.”

Five years and still it feels like hardly a moment has passed. Nicholas and I were such friends growing up. We were reckless youths, never expecting to take on these titles.

Trying to find a new direction of conversation, he tried to smile as he asked, “Really? Would you have been there? Funerals are such dreary affairs, Eleanor.”

She set aside her plate on the bench between them so she might rest a hand on his forearm. “I wouldn’t have been anywhere else. If, that is, you wanted me there.”

“I might have welcomed you with open arms.” He looked openly at that pretty hand of hers. Long slim fingers and neatly trimmed nails. She had never managed to put on her gloves. For that, he was most glad.

Eleanor sighed. “You’re jesting with me now.”

He shook his head and finally met her gaze. “Do not think of me so. There are no bells in my cap, Eleanor. It is no jest. I take your kindness seriously if nothing else.”

A warm blush spread over her face; though he thought she might turn away, she didn’t. They studied one another for a long minute before Eleanor slowly curled her lips into a faint smile.

“You’re a good man, Dominic,” she murmured. “You deserved better than losing so much of your family all at once. The pain you bear…”

He swallowed and shook his head. “It is no worse than yours.”

“A fever stole away your parents and your brother and sister all in a month’s time. It was absolutely dreadful. One funeral for one person is terrible, but one funeral for four…” Eleanor let out a shuddering breath. “It’s not right. I understand you needed time. That you suffered a great pain that will ache inside for the rest of your days, sometimes flaring with the heat of the sun. But as you said yesterday, my fear of others should not control me. Nor should your pain and loss control you.”

Opening his mouth to reassure her that this was not the case, Dominic found himself wondering if he could be wrong. He studied Eleanor’s open gaze. She had lost, too. She had hurt and he knew without a doubt she had cried enough to fill the Thames.

Did she cry for me?

Dominic had to blink several times to pull himself together. He gave a short nod, trying to think. As Eleanor leaned back, he patted her hand in what he hoped was more brotherly than anything else. That was something he needed to keep in mind.

“Thank you for your kind words,” he said at last. “You are too good to me, Eleanor. I appreciate your wisdom and will think on this. In the meantime, I must encourage you to eat something before I fit the entire picnic into my stomach.”

Fortunately, she didn’t begrudge his teasing this time. She took back her hand and picked up her plate. “The entire picnic? Surely not the basket as well.”

When their eyes met again, Dominic felt the knot in his stomach loosen quickly. He saw the hope in Eleanor’s eyes. Hope and cheer.

Though he hardly deserved such kindness, he found himself eager to bask in her good mood. While he could enjoy her, he decided, he would savor every minute to think on during the cold and lonely nights that awaited him for the rest of his days.